


The Artifact

by sachspanner



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Museums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-08 00:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sachspanner/pseuds/sachspanner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I know it's all been done before, but here goes. An old man falls in love with the most beautiful living thing in all the universe, because she has more to teach him than a boring museum ever will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Artifact

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's love bingo comm, under the prompt "Attraction". I'd use the tag, but I can't find it.

Museums were good. You could learn things from museums. Normal, sensible things like what happened, and where, and when, and if it managed to do all those things at the same time.

The Doctor would hardly admit it, but he was bored. Nothing here was of interest to him. He was well over two hundred years old, and had seen it all before.

There were Dalek remains, phenomenally ancient tablets strewn with Gallifreyan script, and possibly every other sight that any Time Lord should ever hope or need to see.

Any other Time Lord, that was. The Doctor needed something more. That day, he found it.

Most of the visitors were ignoring her completely. He would come to learn that this was just one of her charms, and yet, from the moment he spotted her out of the corner of his eye, he couldn’t look away. He knew he had to have her.

She looked perfectly ordinary. She was just an ancient chest, carved with the representation of a Time Lord female, a perfectly reasonable exhibit for this kind of museum. It was large enough, of course, for someone of about his height and build to walk inside comfortably.

He could hardly keep from running towards it, but his joints, even at that young age, weren’t what they once were. So he crept up to her, hoping nobody else noticed just how beautiful she was.

There was a plaque, and a barrier, as there always is in museums. Having endured the ages, these precious objects can hardly be expected to withstand the gaze of a few curious parties. No, not just the gaze, but the touch. The Doctor wanted so much to touch her. He didn’t even understand her. He just knew he wanted her.

He read the inscription.

_Type 40 TT Tardis. One of over three hundred examples commissioned, it was built for the renegade Marnal. At the time of his death, it was believed never to have been flown, but the key was never located. Due to this unusual string of events, it remains locked and in perfect condition._

‘Perfect condition?’ he looked at the ship. ‘This seems like a rather imperfect condition to me, to be all locked up in here.’

Perhaps it was only his own desire speaking, but the TARDIS seemed to agree with him.

‘And never flown?’ he asked, peering miserably through the keyhole. ‘All locked up- that’s no life for a thing like you.’

He looked around him. Still, nobody seemed to have noticed the magnificent ship in their midst. So, it followed, nobody would notice if he lay an inquisitive hand on her.

He reached out. She was warm. Vibrating. Alive. He could stand his curiosity no longer, and moved his hand over the handle. To his astonishment, it gave way and the door creaked open just the tiniest amount.

Oh, but it was enough. Of course, it was enough. He would steal her. He had to steal her. She was perfect, and new, and his TARDIS.

He was her Doctor.

~ ~ ~


End file.
